


My ‘me time’ consists of…

by pixiealtaira



Series: 30 Days of Lists challenge [24]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:15:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23551390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pixiealtaira/pseuds/pixiealtaira
Summary: Prompt 24.	My ‘me time’ consists of…
Relationships: Elliott "Starchild" Gilbert/Kurt Hummel
Series: 30 Days of Lists challenge [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1679446
Kudos: 51





	My ‘me time’ consists of…

Sharing the loft with Rachel ended up to be the ultimate exercise in patience, even when she wasn’t in her ‘queen of the world’ state. She was loud, she was rude, she was bossy, she was nosey, and she was inconsistent. Kurt never knew when she was eating Vegan, or just vegetarian, or when she was going to decide she was eating meat again…thus finding food he’d bought for himself gone. She never asked, either. Whatever was in the place was hers. Now, the same did NOT hold true for him…Rachel’s almond milk was Rachel’s, not his, and no one but Rachel was to touch it. The fit she threw when he used it to mix into his hot chocolate was epic and cost him two lamps and a canvas print he’d paid a fair amount of cash for.

Kurt quickly became very determined to have his ‘me time’. He had his daily ‘me time’ and his weekly ‘me time’. He briefly tried to share a few of his daily ‘me time’ rituals with Blaine over Skype, but that failed completely by day two. Blaine wasn’t into skin care like Kurt was, so had no use what-so-ever with doing a skincare regimen together, especially since Kurt couldn’t listen to him with enough focus if Kurt was focusing on his skin and products. Nor did Blaine want to do daily vocal exercises with Kurt because if Kurt and he were doing vocal exercises Kurt wasn’t listening to Blaine. (Of course Kurt also was supposed to be silent about his own activities, but Kurt didn’t realize that until later. After they broke up and when Blaine complained about it and Kurt realized he had felt like Blaine had been the one talking all the time, not Kurt himself, Kurt went back to see which state was true. Blaine never did realize Kurt taped all the skype sessions so he could play them again and hear Blaine’s voice when he was feeling sad. A review with a watch and a notebook to record speaking amounts made Kurt a very unhappy man when he thought through what Blaine had insisted…Blaine spoke 3x more than Kurt and interrupted Kurt 15x more than Kurt interrupted him. Furthermore, except days when something extremely spectacular happened for Kurt, their conversations mostly revolved around Blaine and McKinley, like 90% was Blaine and McKinley. Kurt was so not ignoring him.)

Thus Kurt’s ‘me time’ was swiftly his alone and he was nearly rabid about having it. For an hour after 10pm every night, or for an hour an hour after they returned home from being out since Rachel had to chatter and talk her social engagements through before she could be normal, Kurt got the bathroom to do his skin care regimen and no one was to talk to him or bug him. He got to shut the door and play his music out loud as loud as needed to block the sound from the rest of the loft. Rachel’s demand that he was disturbing her was met with his taping her morning vocal ‘practice’ and threatening to put it out over the NYADA chat groups…mass share it everywhere. She complained exactly that once.

Every morning Kurt got up at 6am and spent an hour doing yoga. Rachel’s complaint about that was met with Kurt taping Rachel first thing in the morning eating cereal and yelling at the TV in her bathrobe before she’d done any of her morning routines, which she didn’t start until nearly 7am in New York because she didn’t have class until 11am and didn’t work. The same threat about the chatrooms applied to that video as well.

Finally, every day, while Rachel was away from the loft, Kurt carved out a half hour for his vocal exercises. He didn’t do half the nutty things Rachel did, which she picked up from reading books and blogs and continued to do even though coaches and professors told her not to. No, Kurt did the same exercises that they had done in school and the ones he heard recommended on the NYADA chatroom when he asked. He also added the exercises the NYADA students recommended to each other for getting ready for auditions. Then he sang. Every day he’d turn on the radio in the house, make it search for a station and sing with whatever song was on when the search stopped. He generally managed 10 minutes of this. It might not have been ‘normal’ and ‘conventional’ but it was certainly educational. He learned what types of music he could and couldn’t sing easily to and expanded his song bank knowledge, which could only help. He found genres of music he wished to expand his knowledge in and languages he was determined to learn well enough to sing in. It made him happy.

His weekly ‘me time’ was also carved out during the times Rachel was at class. Kurt took a yoga class every Tuesday during his Vogue.com lunch hour. He’d read it grounded you and allowed you to release negative energy. He wasn’t sure it completely lived up to that claim, but it certainly calmed him and helped him stay that way. It was very noticeable to him when he missed it. He had less ability to stay reasonable with Rachel and not fall to her levels of irrationalness. It was a life saver after the break-up…he slept Tuesday nights. He continued the practice even after he started NYADA. After Finn, he ended up increasing the days for yoga to twice a week, which helped him a great deal. When Elliot found out he brought Kurt to the yoga studio he went to and convinced Kurt to go daily as soon as school was done for the school year, making sure his daily time was included in his summer schedule. It helped.

When Blaine came to New York, Kurt kept his ‘me time’ routines. It was one of those things that annoyed Blaine. Kurt had ‘me time’ that Blaine couldn’t get him to get rid of. Of course, Blaine had ‘me time’ as well, but Kurt had known since going to school with Blaine at Dalton that Blaine operated under different rules about things like ‘me time’ for him and everyone else. Blaine also had ‘dude time’ which was never to be missed and to be spent with Sam and Artie, or whoever else Blaine was hanging with at the time, and ‘bro time’ which was spent with Sam. Kurt added Yoga classes to his week or took them out depending on how stressed he was. After he was bashed, when he was allowed to go back to things like yoga and combat and dance, Kurt snuck in three weeks of yoga classes every day. Blaine was feeling too sorry for himself to notice. (Blaine didn’t notice the nightmares, even though he slept by Kurt every night. He didn’t notice the OCD like behaviors that made themselves known again, like when his dad was getting results back…the counting and color focus and checking and rechecking everything. He didn’t notice Kurt never went by the alley. He never even noticed the scar.)

Kurt kept his ‘me time’ routine through Rachel’s stupidity and Blaine’s melt down and the explosive break-up and the summer. In fact it was his insistence that he find someplace to take yoga classes and Rachel’s dismissal of it (“Really Kurt, it’s not like you are going to be doing enough with the glee club to get that stressed to need something like Yoga. I will be in charge and taking on that mantle. You will be there to fetch our music and make sure the kids are in their right spots and of course deal with any problems they are having that might distract them from what is really important, the club.”) that made Kurt reconsider staying in Lima and helping Rachel.

He went back to New York after helping start up the club again…one week to Rachel. The Diva fit Rachel tossed when he refused to stay, combined with Blaine’s behavior at the bar and then the rude and nasty comments he got around town reminded Kurt why he had left in the first place. New York was lonely, but only because Kurt hadn’t really made friends who he’d kept in contact with when Blaine and Rachel got possessive…it had just been easier to do it their way and not fuss. However, he didn’t have to live for them anymore. He didn’t have to carve out ‘me time’ just to have a bit of time away from others constant demands for his attention and focus. He had to learn to live for him.

He ditched the therapist he’d been seeing before he left and called the student health center at NYADA for recommends. The new lady was much better. He started talking to others in classes and at work and accepting their invites to go out and do stuff with them. 

And he went back to yoga classes at the studio Elliot introduced him to. He was there the day Elliot got back from the yoga retreat where he’d been learning to become a yoga instructor. Elliot came into the studio and was surrounded by cheers and yelling and hugs and kisses and Kurt was sure he wasn’t even seen. However the moment the crowd around Elliot thinned just the tiniest bit, Elliot had pushed through and swept Kurt into a hug, swinging him around until Kurt’s feet swung off the ground and Kurt was laughing.

And Kurt was laughing and surrounded by others joyfulness and Elliot kept Kurt tucked right under his arm the rest of the time they were at the studio. He just tucked Kurt right back into his life…like Kurt had never left, never hid, never backed out of it to keep Blaine from ruining Elliot.

Months later, after the start of a new semester at NYADA and new arrangement to fit in Yoga Lessons at the studio Elliot now taught at, Kurt snuggled up to Elliot on the sofa at Elliot’s place after a night out clubbing with the other man.

“What were you doing at the studio the day I came back?” Elliot said.

“Maintaining my ‘me time’,” Kurt answered.

“Your ‘me time’? I didn’t know you had ‘me time’. I haven’t been messing it up have I?” Elliot said, a slight worried tone in his voice.

Kurt leaned over and kissed his cheek. “You know, my nightly skin care, my daily vocal practice and Yoga routine and my weekly yoga class.”

“But you let me be with you while you do all of those, unless I’m talking too much during vocal practice.” Elliot said.

Kurt smiled. “I do. You want to be there with me…without making any of those times about YOU. Sure, when you first stayed over enough to realize I was very strict with my skin care, you made a comment…but Elliot, your comment was ‘Can you help me set up something like that?’ not ‘You’re not paying attention to me, get over here and join me NOW!’. You wanted included in something important to me. Yoga in the mornings we do together, you don’t boss or order or demand anything about it. You listen and help with vocal practice, and then do your own with me listening and helping. You never stop me from singing without a good reason. I don’t have to carve out ‘me time’ to simply exist. And, that my love, makes all the difference in the world.”

Their kiss was heated and quickly turned into more and Kurt briefly thought while his mind was functioning enough to think deep thoughts that with Elliot every single moment was ‘me time’ and he wouldn’t change a thing.


End file.
